Rocball is a game derivative of volleyball with its roots of play founded the in the Meso-American sport of Tlachtli. The actual game of Tlachtli involved passing a ball from side to side over a low wall without it touching the ground. If the ball fell to the ground, a team would win a point and vice versa. If you struck the ball with an incorrect part of the body, you could lose points for your team.

However, the real purpose of the game was to get the ball through the hoop on a wall above either side of the court. The team that did this won, irrespective of the current score of the game. As a game, Tlachtli has often been described as a combination between volleyball and soccer.

After the creation of volleyball in 1895 and prior to 1980, athletes who played this kind of team net sport played under two different general restrictions. In volleyball, players were not allowed to hit the ball with any part of the body below the waist. In the Asian sport of sepak takrau players were not allowed to use their arms or hands to touch or hit a ball.

In the Micronesian sport of Rocball, players are allowed to hit the ball with any part of the body as long as a player doesn’t carry or hold the ball. And, as in Tlachtli, there is a situation in which a team can lose a point and both sports have scoring areas other than the court floor: The sport of Tlachtli had vertical loops 8 or 10 feet high on a wall above either side of the court, and Rocball has vertical areas for scoring with six by twelve foot goals located ten feet behind each court.

Fundamentals: Aquarter/set game of Rocball with 25 points a set, takes a little less or a little more than one hour to complete.

In Rocball, when a player serves a ball over the net, the receiving team, the defensive team, has two hits to return a served ball. When a served ball is successfully returned over the net, the offensive team has the first five hit play on the ball, and each team is allowed up to five hits to score point/s.

*** Variation: After two hits off a served ball, subsequent plays are five hits for the offensive team and three hits for the defensive team until point/s is scored. This system of play gives the serving/offensive team more of the benefits of the side-out system of play, where the team with the serve had scoring advantage and the receiving team worked against the score for the advantages of the serve.

1. It makes a difference: When a team is allowed five hits, it has more than just a couple of advantages over their opponents with the traditional three hit play:

a. It allows a team to recover from a missed played ball after the third hit. b. It allows a team more opportunity to set up for a multiple point, backcourt score. c.It allows a team more flexibility to move the ball from one side of the court to the other. d. It allows a team more choices of when to spike off a set ball.
e. It allows more different types of strategic plays.f. It allows a team to break the predictable bump, set, spike routine.
g. It defines the difference between which team is playing offense and defense. h. It forces the three hit, defensive team to adjust more as a reactionary force.
i. It creates longer volley and rally plays.j. It breaks up the mind-set and monotony of the three hit count for players and spectators.

2. The team with service is the offensive team and points scored by a team with the serve are defined as volley points: Volley = discharge and attack

3. The team receiving the serve is the defensive team and points scored by the defensive team are defined as rally points: Rally = mobilize and recover.

4. By identifying a team’s points as either volley or rally points, the game incorporates different perspectives and fosters more diverse innovative relationships between the sport, its players, and teams.

Goals:
To develop a comprehensive team net sport that has a reasonably predictable game time of competitive
activity.

3. Improve the Intellectual Elements:
A. Restructure the scoring system so that teams can win a game by total
points scored.
B. Restructure the scoring system to include multiple, optional, and
penalty point scoring.
C. Restructure the sport for backcourt scoring.

Purpose:
1. To provide a wider variety of physical and intellectual challenges in a team net sport that will offer its athletes more frequent and different opportunities to distinguish themselves as a team.

2. To create more diversity in a team net sport’s competitive causes of action and reaction so that individuals, either by spontaneity or proficiency, would be able to better distinguish themselves through their athletic skills.

3. To be able to offer team net sport enthusiast and spectators in general, new stimuli in a familiar sport with consuming and vicarious experiences.

Founder James Feger is seen here officiating games of the 2007-2008 season of the World Organized Rocball Community. The CNMI's only indigenous sport is celebrating its silver anniversary in the 2007-2008 season. The goalie’s box can be seen outlined in yellow, right side of photo. The player in white shirt and blue shorts is the team’s goalie. In the far court, player on the opposite side of net in black shirt is standing if front of his team goal.

Game Features:
Rocball’s offensive and defensive, multiple points scoring system is played under a quarter/set rules of play. The quarter/set system is a combination of the clock system in which teams win a game by total points scored within a specific amount of playing time, and the set system where the winner of a game is based on the amount of time it takes to win a certain number of sets.

In a sport where a game is divided by quarters of play and organized by the clock, the points a team scores, is measured against the expiration time of each quarter and the game. The team that scores the most points within the limits and definitions of playing time will win a game. The differences between team scores at any one point of a clocked game, is a measure of a team’s success. What this does is, it creates an atmosphere of sustained anxiety and anticipation from the time the game begins until it’s finished.

However, there are disadvantages to the clocked game that need to be avoided. Sports organized under this system of play, have one common weak trait, the lopsided score. A game, for all practical purposes, can be finished in three quarters of play or less. In a clocked sport, if by the end of the third quarter, the difference between team scores is so much that there is no sensible or sensational competitive action or series of competitive actions that will alter or change its unavoidable conclusion, the game implodes and becomes an anticlimactic experience.

In a sport where a game is organized by sets, a team’s playing time is measured against how long it takes to win a certain number of sets, within a predetermined number of sets of play, in order to win a game. But, in sports where sets determine the winners or losers, a team can outscore its opponent in total points and still lose the game.

In Rocball’s quarter/set system of play, the points a team scored in each of the four sets of the game is totaled at the end of the fourth set of play. So, there are the set scores that change at the end of each play until a team has scored enough points to win a set, and a game score that changes at the end of each set.

In Rocball’s quarter/set system of play, a team cannot win a game in a losing set and a team cannot win a game if it won the fourth set with less game points scored than their opponents. In a Rocball game, a team must outscore its opponents in total points scored after four sets of play, and win the fourth set in order to “Juice-Out” win a game. Rocball games have the same definitive nature of clocked games in that it has a scheduled start and a predictable finish. Rocball has a set system by which a team’s score ends a set. A team’s set scores determine a team’s game points and is a measure of a team’s success, and the fourth and final set of play is designed for a team to foreclose on its opponent’s competitive expectations.

Overtime Features:
When a team fails to “Juice-Out” in four sets, the team that scored the most game points in four sets but lost the fourth set needs to win one overtime set to win the game. The team that won the fourth set but scored the least amount of game points needs to win two overtime sets to win the game.

“Tlachtli”…When a Rocball game is forced into overtime, the overtime sets are ten points or a goal, whichever is scored first. And, the game is won by the team that wins in overtime set/s irrespective of the game points scored in the regulation quarter/set system of play. In the regulation quarter/set system, a goal is worth three points, but in an overtime set, a player who scores a goal wins the set for his/her team irrespective of either team’s set scores. When a goal isn’t scored, the rules for winning a set are the same as in the quarter/set system. A team must have the serve to win and there is no two point margin/rule for a team in order to win a set.

Set Features:
Because of its offensive and defensive multiple point scoring system, set point in Rocball is fluid. In Rocball, players can score one, two, or three points off a serve or during volley and rally play. If sets of play are designated at 25 points, an offensive team cannot win a set with less than 24 points.

If the offensive team has 23 points and serves an ace, the offensive’s team score will increase to 25 points and either team will have to score at least 26 points to win that set. Depending on how many points each team has scored, either team can increase set point. But! in order for a team to win a set, it must have the serve and be one less point, an equal amount of points, or have more points scored than the designated points marking the end of a set, and serving the ball to win the set.

And, because of the new and different competitive features Rocball has incorporated in its variation of this sport, players are subjected to more different combinations of mental and physical challenges to win a set. Therefore, it wouldn’t serve any meaningful purpose to implement solutions where a team needs to win a set by any margin of points like there is in volleyball.

A quarter/set game of Rocball with 25 points a set takes a little less or a little more than one hour to complete. This is a well documented fact. When teams have been forced into overtime, beyond the four 25 point quarter/set system of play, game time will extend by another half hour or less, depending on whether either team scores a goal and if overtime is completed in one or two sets without a goal being scored.

Tarnes Kapwich of Dublon Chiefs bumps the ball as he sets up a teammate for a kill during yesterday's match against the Ballers in the ongoing World Organized Rocball Community League at the Marianas. Tarness is a veteran Rocball player, he knows that if the ball gets behind him and bounces into the goal, it’s a three point play for the other team.

Service Team’s Advantage:
In Rocball, the offensive team, the team with service, is responsible for activating every play that will lead into a scoring or non-scoring situation. It is the offensive team’s position and responsibility to initiate and invigorate the game’s competitive forces.

The first serve of any player rotating into the server’s position must be a good serve. The failure of a player rotating into the server’s position to make his/her first serve good will cause the offensive team a loss of one point and the loss of the serve. If the offensive team scores off the first serve, there is no penalty for any subsequent bad serves. If the second, third, etc. serves of a player are bad, the serve changes teams and no points are awarded. However, there is a situation in which an unearned point is awarded to the defensive team off a serve. If the offensive team has zero points scored in a set, and the first serve of a player is bad, the offensive team has no points to lose. In this situation the defensive team is awarded one point and the serve.

In rocball, one or the other team can earn one point off the serve or during a volley and rally exchange by grounding the ball on the opponent’s court, hitting the ball off and outside the boundaries of the court, touching the net, consecutive multiple hitting by one player, crossing under the net onto an opponent’s court, lifting, throwing, or carrying a ball. (The rules of play that defines offensive and defensive scoring in this kind of team net sport were first copyrighted, Library of Congress, Washington D.C. 1981, fourteen years before volleyball adopted the rally point scoring system.)

In addition to Rocball’s offensive and defensive court point system of play, the offensive team’s scoring advantage includes two points on an ace serve and a two point optional play on a xunk serve. The ace is a serve that is touched by one player on the defensive team and grounded on or off court before a second player can touch the ball. The xunk is a serve that lands on the defensive team’s court untouched. When the offensive team scores a xunk, they can add two points to their set score or subtract two points from the defensive team’s set score.

Only the offensive team scoring volley points has closure. The defensive team scoring rally points cannot win a set/game: This is an important remnant of the side-out system of play when there was a balance of challenges between teams. The team that scores a point/s will serve the ball to start the next play.

In Rocball, the serve is the catalyst that precipitates competitive action. The serve characterizes possession, offensive and defensive team identity, control, and scoring advantage. The serve is what starts the sport’s competitive action to begin a game and it is the process in which the beginning of the end of competition is completed.

During Tuesday's World Organized Rocball Community League action. Myron Laniyo of Shag executing a “Kee” (a two point backcourt play made by a team’s goalie) theLaniyo and company, however, fell to two-time defending champion Ghasias Brothers 52-54.

Scoring Features:
In the sport of Rocball, there are one, two, and three point plays and there are two different ways in which a team can lose points:

A. The Court: One point can be scored when a ball is grounded on an opposing team’s court or court lines by any player except for goalies, or when a player on the opposing team hits a ball off court, carries, double hits, touches the net or commits a penalty off the serve or during volley and rally activity. The face or forward facing frame of the goal is considered a court line. When a ball, without first bouncing anywhere off court, hits the face of the goal, it is considered a court area of play.

B. The Ace: The ace is worth two points. The two point ace is made off the serve. An ace is scored when the ball is touched or hit by one player and then grounded before another player touches or hits the ball.

C. The Xunk: The xunk is made off the serve. A xunk is scored when a served ball lands on the opposing team’s court untouched or isn’t knocked from its natural decent before landing on the court. The xunk is an optional point scoring play. The offensive team can add two points to its set score or deduct two points from its opponent’s set score.

D. The Penalty Point: If the first serve of a player rotating into the serving position is bad, the offensive team is penalized one point and loses the serve. If the offensive team has zero points when a player makes a bad first

E. The Kee: The Kee is a two point backcourt score made by the goalie of either team. The goalie is the only player not allowed to play within the ten foot line next to the net.

F. The Goal: The goal is the vertical scoring area located 10 feet (about 3 meters) behind each court. A ball that is directly hit, bounces into, or is deflected off a player and enters the goal is three points: Players are not allowed to catch a ball at any time during a game.

The Offensive Team’s Scoring Advantages:
The Offensive team is the team with service. Only the offensive team has closure. A team must have the serve to win a set or game. The offensive team has the first five hit play on a ball, it is awarded two points off an ace, optional two point scoring on a xunk, two points for a kee, three
points for a goal, and one point for court scoring by any player except the goalie.

The Defensive Team’s Scoring Challenges:
The defensive team’s challenges during a regular quarter/set system of play include fewer multiple types of scoring methods; they are limited with two hits off the serve, and they do not have closure and cannot win a set even if they score enough points to complete a set. The defensive team can score one point on a jam and court plays, two points on a kee, and three points for a goal. The defensive team works against the scoring and game advantages of the offensive team for the benefits of the serve.

The defensive goalie’s position and circumstances of play is a major part of the game’s challenges:

1. The goalie is the only player allowed to set off the serve.
2. The goalie is the only player allowed to make first hit off a served ball
in the area designated the goalie’s box, or the imaginary line to the
goal behind the court.
3. The goalie is not allowed to swing an arm or leg inside the goal to hit
a ball out.
4. The goalie is not allowed to make a play inside the ten foot line.
5. The goalie is not allowed to catch a ball in an effort to prevent a
goal from being scored.

Pedro Iguel, left, and Darrel Roligat of Mwaliyas celebrate after Iguel smashed his second goal of the match during the fourth set of Game 1 in the World Organized Rocball High School League best-of-five championship series at the Marianas High School. Mwaliyas defeated SKN, 49-36

Empirical Data:Rocball regular season kicks off:

The islands' indigenous sport of Rocball returned last Saturday with the first eight regular season games booked for 2007 at the Marianas High School Gym.

In the first game, Team By Luck defeated the Chukese Warriors by juicing out in four sets, 68-34. Melvin Yamat of By Luck was the game's heavy hitter with four aces, two kees, and a xunk for 14 points.

No-Use then dropped the DOTA All-Stars in four sets, 65-12, in the second game. However, Mark Reyes of the DOTA All-Stars was the game's heavy hitter with five aces, two kees, and a goal for 17 points.

In the day's third game, Team Malat was able to lay back and cruise into the winners' bracket as the Sonics failed to show up for their match and lost by forfeit.

The fourth game then saw Team Seven and the Jammers pound out a hard four sets of play where neither team was able to juice out and forced an o-kon showdown.

At the end of the regular four sets of play, the Jammers had the points, 46-43, but they lost the closing set, 18-15. Rocball rules state that in order for a team to juice out, it must have scored more game points thanits opponents and win the fourth set.

According to Rocball creator James Feger, a team cannot win a game in a losing set and a team cannot win a game with less game points than its opponents' if it wins the fourth set. In o-kon/overtime the team with the most game points needs to win one set and the team with the less game points needs to win two o-kon. O-kon is won by 10 points, service team closure, or a goal; whichever comes first.

The Jammers won the game in first o-kon by a close 10-9 score. Ben Lisua of Team Seven was the game's heavy hitter with four aces, a xunk, and a goal for 13 points.

The NG Force also forced the game into overtime in the fifth game of the day by winning the fourth set from the Naturals, 16-8. What made it special was it was the only set of the regular game that they won.

At the end of the quarter/set system of play, the Naturals swamped the NG Force 63-36, but failed to close out the game in a winning set. Not to be denied the victory, the Naturals overcame their weak ending of the fourth set of regular play by winning the game in first o-kon, 10-4.

Evenflow and team Try-Out battled back and forth winning two sets each in the sixth game of the Rocball marathon. In the first set, it was Evenflow 17-10. In the second set, it was Try-Out 16-13, In the third set, it was Try-Out again 15-14, but in the final set of regular play, Evenflow powered their way to a 15-5 fourth-set victory that gave them the game with a juice out win 59-46. The heavy hitter for this game was John Nekaifes of Evenflow with two aces and four kees for 12 points.

In the day's seventh match between Monota and Team 691, the competition didn't end until the second o-kon off a goal from Ray Amandos of Monota. In this game, Team 691 won the first and second sets, 16-10 and 15-8. In the third and fourth sets, Monota won 16-9 and 16-13. Monota didn't score enough game points to juice out in the fourth set and the game went in to
overtime.

According to Feger, Team 691 had the advantage because they only needed to win one o-kon to win the game. But Monota skunked Team 691 in first o-Kon, 11-0. Team 691 bounced back in the second and last overtime set and was leading 6-5 when Ray slammed in a goal that ending the game and sealed
Monota in the winners' bracket for next Saturday.

In the last game of the day, teams made up of veteran and new Rocball players lead by Myron Laniyo of No-Mercy and Val Taisacan of the Islanders played a hard-hitting, four-set game.

No Mercy won the first set, 21-18, but the Islanders bounced back and won the second set, 18-14. In the third set, No-Mercy had the momentum and pounded the Islanders, 15-7. In the fourth and final set of regular play, the Islanders knocked out an 18-12 win.

At the end of regular play, it was No-Mercy, 73, and Islanders, 61. But it was the Islander's fourth set win that prevented No-Mercy from juicing-out.

In the first set o-kon there was no mercy in No-Mercy as they skunked the Islanders 11-0 for the last win of the night.

Laniyo finished as the game's heavy hitter with two aces, five kees, and a goal for 17 points. But all teams should beware of the hard-hitting goal scoring method of Jerry Saures of the Islanders. Saures' power coming off the backcourt is something other players will have to try and contain, noted Feger.

“A MICRONESIAN SPORT”

Pedro’s Smoke

The serve is the catalyst to this kind of team net sport. It’s the responsibility of the team that earned the right to serve, to initiate the sport’s competitive features. And, in order to maintain a balance of
challenges, a system of rules that establishes equal but different competitive roles for the service and receiving team must be established. The following is a game played in a system developed by adapting volleyball’s side-out play with offensive and defensive scoring:

In set one, Black Magic jumped out to an early lead and Mwaliyas had a problem making good on first serves*. When Black Magic had trouble off first serve, not serving the ball over the net or served the ball out of bounds, Mwaliyas was able to catch-up at game point seven. Teams played even ball from points seven through twelve. Black Magic pulled ahead on court-points 13 to 12. Mwaliyas jumped up to set point from 12 to 14 off a two-point backcourt play. Mwaliyas served for set point, but Black Magic scored off Mwaliya’s set point serve to tie the set at 14 points each. Teams were at 14 to 14 with Black Magic serving for set point. (Two point margins for set wins are not a rule of play for offensive and defensive scoring) Black Magic’s first serve on set point was bad, and they lost a point, which put them off set point to 13. Mwaliyas served the ball over the net into Black Magic’s court area of play. Black Magic, in two hits, returned the ball back over the net and Mwaliyas scored the set winning point.

The service team has scoring advantage. In a balanced competitive offensive and defensive team net sport, where the serve is the catalyst to the game’s competitive features, and in the spirit of the side-out scoring system, the receiving team only has two hits off a serve to return the ball over the net. Both teams were at set point with this rule of differentiation: Black Magic choked and Mwaliyas converted.

In set two, Black Magic played methodically and well disciplined. They converted first serves, offensively and defensively scored one and two point plays up to set point, and then slammed in a
backcourt two point play to accentuate their dominance. In set two, Mwaliyas played erratically. They got off to a good start, suffered loss points from bad serves, scored a three point play, ran into trouble off the serve again, and were not able to break up Black Magics systematic methods of attack and recover. And, at the end of set two, Black Magic was leading in overall points, 29 to 27.

In set three, both teams played well discipline ball. Neither team suffered from any loss of points. Mwaliyas scored big on two point aces and backcourt plays. Mwaliyas had Black Magic down 14 to 3 and at set point, when Black Magic dug in their heels and rallied with a series of one and two point plays to 10 and then scored big with a three point goal that put the set at 13 to 14 with Black Magic serving. Black Magic served and Mwaliyas converted the defensive two hit serve rule into a court point. That put the set at 15 to 13 in favor of Mwaliyas. Mwaliyas then served the ball over the net, Black Magic returned the ball over the net in two hits off the serve, and Mwaliyas scored with a two-point back court play. And, at the end of set three, Mwaliyas had regained the lead in overall points 44 to 42.

Set Four: Mwaliyas: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-10-12-14-15
Black Magic…2-4

In set four, Black Magic served first. Black Magic scored a two point ace on first serve and two points off a backcourt play on the second serve. On the third and final serve for Black Magic in the fourth set, Mwaliyas scored a court point and won the serve. The first and only person to serve for Mwaliyas in the fourth set was Pedro Iguel. Pedro started serving and Mwaliyas started scoring, one point at a time, Mwaliyas was in trouble a couple of times during the set, but managed to win the long rallies. On at least two occasions, Mwaliyas took advantage of the five hit service team rule and reloaded after the their three hit plays were busted up, by a bad pass and ball spiked into the net. Pedro never lost the serve. As hard as Black magic tried, they weren’t able to break Pedro’s serve, score off Mwaliyas, or rally enough to stop Mwaliyas in set four. The game ended with Mwaliyas juicing-out Black Magic in four sets 59 to 46.

Watch & Learn's Tyce Mister, left, sets up a “Kee” for Mark McDonald in Game 2 of their race-to-three finals series against the defending champion Mwaliyas yesterday in the World Organized Rocball Community League at the Marianas High

GAME OF THE WEEK

In the game of the week, the third undefeated team of this year, Evenflow, was challenged to the limit. The Try-Outs, a skilled team of volleyball players, played hard at the front positions and recorded 10 kills from the right and left net. They successfully blocked 6 shots from Evenflow, made five saves from off court, and 2 digs on court. And, they scored a team total of 10 aces, 9 kees, and 1 goal in heavy hitting.

The Try-Outs won the first two sets 19 to 17 and 19 to 16. But, the Try-Outs shanked the first serves of possession 10 times, and lost 10 points for those bad serves in the first four sets of regular game. They haven’t yet made the transition from rallypoint volleyball to Rocball’s modified side-out system of play. And, the shank serves hurt them the most in the fourth set when they were at game point and almost scored a juice-out win twice.

Team Evenflow, the third team to come out of the elimination round of games undefeated, does not crack under pressure. They won the third set of the game 20 to 19 and held off the Try-Outs in the fourth set to force overtime play. At one time in the fourth set, Evenflow had the Try-Outs down 16 to 7. Evenflow was two points away from juicing out. Evenflow needed a four point margin in the fourth set to make up the games points needed for them to juice-out.

The Try-Outs clawed out of their 4th quarter slump and scored 7 points on a run and put the score at 16 to 14 before they lost the serve. Evenflow scored and put them at game point 17 to 14. The Try-Outs scored off Evenflow and closed in 17 to 15. Evenflow seemed a little stunned and Try-Out scored twice again and tied the score at 17 to 17.

At this point, Try-Out was playing for game point, and Evenflow was playing for set point and a chance to force the game into overtime. And, then Try-Out choked up and shanked their serves from 17 to 16 twice, winning a points to tie the game, put them at game point twice, and losing game point advantage twice.
Evenflow got the serve off Try-Outs after the second shank at 17 to 16, capitalized on the Try-Outs errors, and scored off the serve to win the set and force the game into overtime.

At the end of four sets of play, the Try-Outs had outscored Evenflow 73 to 71 but failed to juice-out. In order to win a game in the quarter/set system, a team must win the fourth set and have more game points scored than their opponents. A team cannot juice out in a losing set with the most game points scored, and a team cannot juice-out by winning the fourth set with a losing score.

In overtime, the Try-Outs had the advantage. Because they had the most game points scored after four sets of play, the Try-Outs only had to win one overtime set of ten points or a goal. Evenflow needed to needed stop the Try-Outs from winning the first overtime set and force the game to a do-or-die situation.

Evenflow was able to just squeeze out a difficult first overtime set win 11 to 10. The game came to the final set for these two teams, and after an hour and ten minutes from their firscompetitive serve, Evenflow started out in the final set in a blaze of serves with three consecutive 2 points aces. But, the game came to a sudden halt, when Eugene Solomon of Evenflow, exploded off of a backcourt spike to win the game with a goal.

The Evenflow players scored 9 aces, 2 xunks, 9 kees, and 2 goals. In court play, Evenflow made 5 kills, 3 off court saves, and 2 diggs. Heavy hiiters of the game were J.R. Gechig of Evenflow with 2 aces and 4 kees and Jazz Rosakow of the Try-Outs with 5 aces and 1 kee

Evenflow players pose for a photo after Game 2 of their best-of-five championship series against No-Use in the 2007-2008 World Organized Rocball Community League last Saturday at the Marianas High School Gymnasium. After dropping the first two games, Evenflow won the last three to take home the championship

End of the Season Stats
Rocball has two “Master Blasters” this year, Val Taisakan of the Islanders and Eugene Solomon of team Evenflow. Both Val and Eugene have scored at least once of the five categorys of scoring that separate Rocball from Volleyball.

To earn the title of “Master Blaster” a player has to score at least one each of the two point serve called an ace, the two point serve called a xunk, the two point backcourt score called a kee, the three point goal, and the most difficult, the one point “jam”. The jam is a play where a receiving team player can knock down or jam a served ball just as it crosses over the net.

Myron Laniyo of No-Mercy is the season’s heavy hitter. Myron has scored 13 aces, 2 xunks, 29 kees, and 5 goals for 103 points not counting his kills, dinks, and court point scoring. Myron is last year’s MVP and “Master Blaster” but has yet to score a jam.

Myron Laniyo’s 29 kees is the leader in backcourt scoring and is tied with Ichnis Kapwich of team No-Use at 5 goals each. J.R. Gechig and Eugene Solomon of team Evenflow are tied for scoring 16 aces each. And, J.J. Neth and Julius Saito of the team called the Try-Outs are tied at scoring 3 xunks each.

In team statistics, Evenflow has scored 68 aces, the Try-Outs’ scored 10 xunks and is the best in the league for that kind of serve, team Evenflow is the best backcourt scoring team with 73 kees, and team No-Use leads in the 3 point scoring category with 12 goals.

And, even though team Evenflow came in 4th place for the semi-finals, they scored the heaviest with 68 aces, 6 xunks, 1 jam, 73 kees, and 8 goals for 318 points. The second best heavy hitting team was No Mercy with 56 aces, 4 xunks, 64 kees, and 10 goals for 278 points. No-Use came in third with 36 aces, 8 xunks, 69 kees, and 12 goals for 262 points. And, team Try-Outs in their first year playing Rocball came in fourth place with 60 aces, 10 xunks, 40 kees, and 7 goals for 241 points.

The MVP award for the year went to Typhoon Saito of Evenflow who scored 10 two point aces, 30 two point backcourt scores, and 3 three point goals in the five semi-final and championship games of the year.